England's Bird, who stood in 66 Tests and also did duty in three World Cup finals, revealed his Greatest Test XI in an interview to "The Telegraph" newspaper on Wednesday, on the eve of his 80th birthday.

Bird's all-time XI has Pakistan's Imran Khan as captain while England's Allan Knot is the wicketkeeper.

On Gavaskar, Bird said: "Sunil was one of the two best opening bats I saw."

Bird felt South Africa's Barry Richards "would have broken all the records, but for apartheid." Barry is the other opener with Gavaskar.